By Ria Taitt
Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Darrell Allahar yesterday used his own difficulties in accessing his ministerial salary, to make the point that commercial banks were “brutalising poor people” while facilitating those persons they regarded as “somebodies”.
Speaking in the debate on the mid-year review in the Senate, Allahar said the Government felt the pain of the ordinary person and the inconvenience that they suffer “because of the abject stupidity of commercial banks and the preferential treatment they choose to give to big clients where they put the big boys first”.
“I will disclose…this is a personal lamentation. You see I must admit that I have not had an income for the past two months after leaving private practice. I know I made a decision to sacrifice for national service, and I will continue to do so even if I don’t get an income next month…I was assured by the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister that my salary was electronically transferred to the bank because that’s what they do when they pay wages and salaries when you fill out all these little forms, I think it’s called the Iris system. That Iris system probably has glaucoma…probably cataract.” he quipped.
“For the past few days, I have been checking my online banking and nothing has come…Yesterday, I got a call while I was in this chamber…from the bank. So I ran outside. ‘The bank that puts you first’, was asking that I provide proof of the source of funds for my salary, which was sent electronically by the Government to my bank…I don’t know if the Government itself launders money to public officials from the Consolidated Fund…At the end of the day, I still wait for the money that I worked very hard for. So I understand the lamentation of the ordinary man,” Allahar added.
Putting customers last
Allahar continued jokingly: “Is a good thing allyuh have something in the tearoom for me (to eat). And I might have to ask (PNM) Senator Faris-Al-Rawi to buy me an aloo pie and some coffee at Pancho’s later on. Because I still don’t have my money.
“This morning, I understand that ‘the bank that puts you first’ would want to get from me two forms of ID, a salary slip, and proof of my address. I have been living here (in the Parliament chamber) for the past three days. Maybe you (Senate President Wade Mark) could give me a little card to say ‘Red House’ (is my address). I don’t know if tomorrow ‘the bank that puts you’ first wants meh nani name, meh nana name, meh mamoo name, my biometric data. All of this when I’ve been banking there for the past 14 years. But I will comply because I’ve already given them my warrant of appointment from Her Excellency, the President, as a minister. I have already given them my warrant of appointment from Her Excellency, the President, as a senator. I’ve already given them the little green form that they had to stamp to send to the Comptroller of Accounts…I’ve already given them my letter of assumption. What else do they want? The colour of my underwear? I don’t know,” he said.
“I don’t know, but God forbid, yes. But, Mr President, I will comply. Like everyone else, sometimes you have to accept stupidity and hostility just to try to get things done. My bank will not put you first unless you are, for example, someone in its view who matters. Someone who they don’t view as a second-class citizen.
“There must be a better way, Mr President, to balance financial oversight and what we are required to do with ease of business. And we, the UNC Government, shall find a way. We shall find a way. And that is because, Mr President, unlike some commercial banks and unlike some regimes which the people rejected recently, it is the UNC that puts people first,” Allahar stated.
“We said that we shall examine the banking system and how we can improve ease of business, ease of people getting their wages and salaries and so on, especially public officers,” he said.
He said the PNM government has, for the last ten years, left the commercial banks alone to “brutalise poor people” while enabling friends and family and financiers to access foreign exchange and to navigate the banking system and the cream of the economic system with ease.